Project Title
Design Guidelines for Refugee Family Housing: "Spaces Beyond Shelter"
Project Description:
More than 122 million people are currently displaced worldwide, with a vast majority of them living in ‘temporary’ accommodations that were never designed for extended stays, which sadly are the norm.
Refugee accommodations are built under conditions of crisis – short timelines, constrained budgets, urgent need – prioritizing the provision of shelter, food, and safety. However, families who reside in these accommodations almost always stay much longer than anyone planning the response anticipated: months, years, and even decades. Over time, the spatial conditions that supported survival can slowly begin to undermine recovery. Drawing on environmental psychology and preliminary fieldwork for displaced families, this thesis examines how the built environment contributes to identity, agency, belonging, and stress during prolonged displacement. It identifies spatial dimensions through which housing supports or wears down daily life, translating these into design guidelines that extend emergency response toward longer-term dignity and care.
Most Important Accomplishment: I’m proud of conquering my fear of creepy basements by discovering my passion for research—find me chopping up bird brains in the basement of Uris!
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: For me College Scholar means so much more than simply exploring personal academic interests. College Scholar is a small but mighty community of passionate people, who love and need to learn and discover. I am so grateful to be surrounded by open-minded scholars, who are ready to go on both academic and real adventures! Nevertheless, the College Scholar Program is, in truth, a singular and peculiar liminal space itself, embodying diverse disciplines and an abundance of intellectual provocations. I aspire to grasp the beauty of doing research, implementing favorite subjects offered by very distinct departments into my own holistic project. It teaches you how to stop following the trodden path and choose on your own what direction to go further in.